94 DANCING A riel' s Kingdom W H N Ravel's opera "L'En- fant et les Sortilèges" was given its world prenlière, in 1925, at the Théâtre de Monte Carlo, the dances in it were cOIn posed bv George Balanchine, who was then working for Diaghilev. "L'Enfant" was not a Diaghilev production. The Ballets Russes, having recently estab- lished a honle base in Monte Carlo, waS supplying the dancers and chore- ographers for the operas, hut its main work was producing the ballet season. (Besides, Ravel and Diaghilev, who had quarrelled over "La Valse," were still estranged.) Grigoriev, In his book on the conlpany, says that Diaghilev assigned the opera ballets to the new- conler Balanchine as a way of test- ing his capacities. Balanchine was just twenty-one, a boy choreographer at work on Ll fantasy of childhood. It would be interesting to know what he devised. In ] 946, he presented "L'En- fant et les Sortilèges" in its first New York production. This took place in the drab and poorly equipped auditori- um of the Central High School of Needle Trades (now the High School of f'ashion Industries), and Balan- chine staged it after the nlethod he had used ten years before in Gluck's "Or- feo" at the Met (where he had once again put on opera bal- lets): except for a boy soprano in the leading role (Monte Carlo had cast a girl), the sIngers were offstage and their roles were InÏtned by dancers. According to spLctators, the result was enchantnlent de- spite the surroundings, but as dn event it has passed into history as httle rnore than ï cur- whole new production-and a vain one, because the words the singers were singing could not be heard clearly e\ en in the first ring. The State Theatre is too large and acoustically too dull a place for so dehcate a work, nlade nlore delicate still by divorcing the singers fronl their roles Balanchine's nlethod enhances the nlagic and the in- herent kinetic charnl of Colette's libret- to, in which abused household pets and objects, and finally an entire garden full of insects and aninlals, turn on their young tornlentor. But the words, mu- sic, and gestures, which should be locked as precIsely as the elenlents of a nlosaic, beconle separated and lost in the dead spaces of the State Theatre. It's a pity that one of the snlaller stages in Lincoln Center could not have been used instead. Even in an intinlate theatre there would be problenls. Balanchine's stag- ing is not as consistently clear as it might be, especially in the opera's more static nlonlents, such as the aria of the Princess and the clinlactic scene in the garden. The Princess appears to the Child as a fignlent of his inlagination, conjured fronl the pages of his note- book, which now lies torn up in a fit of petulance. The fairy tale the Child was writing has no end, and the Princess is abandoned. As the scene is written, it IS a portent of the loss of innocence, and Ra- vel's setting Inakes It even more painful and crippling than that. As it is staged, with sonle very indefinite nlinlc by Christine Redpath, it's bewildering and boring until the very last nlO- ment, when the Pnn- d tl'la.(\tJlrj cess is engulfed by the forces of night and darkness. The dance of the Shepherds and Shepherdesses who conle out of the wal] hegins with another nlarvellous stroke-the wallpaper that the Child has torn curling upward by itself. But then the dance doesn't go on to explain what the stage direction denlands-that the torn wallpaper has separated these little people printed on it. (Of course, in a smaller theatre we nlight even be able to see the wallpape r. ) The garden scene, which Colette describes as "a paradise of tenderness and aninlal de- light," is set within a white shell pierced by the branches of an enOl nlous, barky . . taln-raJSer to a new and epochal ballet, "The Four Tern- peranlents." For the fi rst week of the New York Cit) Ballet's Ravel festival, B.:tlanchine again produced "L'Enfant" as a danced opera. As before, the only onstage singer was the boy soprano. The other singers were ranged on platfornls flanking the stage-soloists to the left, chorus to the right. The text was the English adaptation of Colette by Lin- coln Kirstein and Jane Barzin which was used in 1946. VIsually beautiful, with richl) inventive scenery, costunltS, and props by KernlIt Love, this was a JUNE 2., I 9 7 5 tree and bathed in a rather ghastly green light. SaIne winglike kites COlnlnence an insectoid flutter in the cove, so that it suggests a tropical aquariurn set wIth jewels. Bu t the separate ballets of the dragonflies, the frogs, and the squirrels, and the little poignant dranlas they tell of, do not have a jewellike distinc- tion. That green ohscurity keeps every element switnlning and colliding with ever) other elenlent, and when there should be a slow fade down and out on the Child's last word-"Manla! "- the curtain falls like an axe. Ronald Bates's lighting, which has done bitter things to other productions in this rep- ertory, here does its worst \Vho knows but that if the lighting were cleaned up, the little squirrel scene, skillfully nlinled à la Shari Lewis b) Stephanie Saland, would penetrate to the back of the house? Alexis Roland-Manuel, Ravel's pu- pil and biographer, wrote, "Ravel rules an enchanted world nlade up of chil- dren, gods, fairies, tender anitnals, tlll bulent puppets. It is the kingdoln of Ariel." That nlight becolne a nlotto for this "L'Enfant" to live up to, if its several kinds of slackness were renl- edied and if a more appropriate show- case could be found. (Since the pro- d uctlon is runlored to be too costly to renlount often, a grant should be raised for it to be filmed and shown on television.) Kernlit Love, of "Sesa- nle Street," has given the conlpany its best décor since Raoul Pène du Bois's " J ". F h fi eux, nIne years ago. or t erst SCene he has made a sinlple and plain French country house in which under the peeling wallpaper another pattern shows through. The several parts of the grandfather clock open and shu t to Ravel's nletric accent. There is a plunlp blue easy chair with a nlouth, and another chair-a bergère-with .:l cretonne pannier. Mama is a giant in the fornl of a giraffe; the Little Old Arithlnetic Man is a dancing bald head, with pince-nez and dewlaps. A puppet squirrel and a puppet cat nlove seemingly by thenlselves. Even the overtone of enamelled chic in the sec- ond scene-the squirrels with their emerald eyes, the dragonflies like cho- rus girls-has its justification in the irony of the nlusic. Ravel, who col- lected fake antiques as well as authentic ones, used to say of people who criti- cized his tastes, "Doesn't it ever occur to thenl that I nlJght be artificial b) "'" nature r One can inlagine another produc- tion-French or English-which would be nlore faithful to Colette and her heartfelt thenle of the Child's grand